- Princess Der Ling
Princess Der Ling was a Manchu noblewoman, the daughter of Lord Yu Keng (裕庚). Lord Yu Keng was a member of the Chinese Plain White Banner Corps (正白旗). After serving as Chinese minister to Japan he was appointed minister to the French Third Republic for four years in 1899. He was known for his progressive, reformist views, as well as for his unvarying support of the Empress Dowager Cixi. He died in Shanghai in 1905. - Mark Smeaton
Mark Smeaton (ex. 17 May 1536) was one of four men executed for alleged adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn. Smeaton was a handsome musician and dancer in the queen's household, Smeaton was famed for his talents as a singer. He could play the lute, virginals and the organ. His date of birth is not known, but he was probably in his early twenties when he died. Possibly of Flemish origin, the name Smeaton could be derived from the surnames de Smet or de Smedt. - Francis Dereham
Francis Dereham (died 10 December, 1541) was most famous for his affair with Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII of England. This affair lasted until Catherine was made Lady-in-waiting to Henry's fourth wife Anne of Cleves. Dereham was made a secretary at Hampton Court, possibly engineered by Agnes Tilney, dowager Duchess of Norfolk to silence him about their previous indiscretions. - Anna Vyrubova
Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, née Taneyeva, was a lady-in-waiting, best friend and confidante to Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna. - Lettice Knollys
Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester (1540 - 25 December, 1634) was born in Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire. Her father was Sir Francis Knollys, a gentleman pensioner of Henry VIII. Her mother was Lady Catherine Carey, the daughter of Lady Mary Boleyn. Catherine thus was the first cousin, and Lettice the first cousin once removed, of Elizabeth I of England. - Sophie Buxhoeveden
Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, also known as Sophia Karlovna Buxhoeveden, was a lady in waiting to Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. She was the author of three memoirs about the imperial family and about her own escape from Russia. - Elizabeth Seymour
Elizabeth Seymour was one of the many children and the second daughter of Sir John Seymour, her sisters being Jane Seymour, later Jane, Queen Consort of King Henry VIII of England; Margery (who died in 1520) and Dorothy. Elizabeth married first, before the other girls. Her marriage to Sir Anthony Ughtred ended at his death in 1534. The couple did not have any children. Like her elder sister, Jane, Elizabeth served as a maid in the household of Henry's second wife, … - Margaret Lee
Margaret Lee (nee Wyatt) (1506(?)-1543(?)) was a sister of poet Thomas Wyatt, and favourite of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England. Margaret is best remembered for having been a companion of Anne Boleyn, whose family estates lay near the Wyatt's and who later employed Margaret as one of her ladies-in-waiting. A portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger shows a woman presumed to be Margaret at the age of thirty-four, … - Elizabeth Raleigh
Elizabeth ("Bess") Raleigh, or Elizabeth Throckmorton (April 16, 1565 - c. 1647), also Elizabeth Throgmorton, was Sir Walter Raleigh's wife, and a Lady of the Privy Chamber (lady-in-waiting) to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Their secret marriage precipitated a long period of royal disfavor for Raleigh. Bess was the daughter of the diplomat Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and Anne Carew. - Queen Draga
Draga Mašin (September 23, 1861 in Gornji Milanovac – June 11, 1903 in Belgrade), also known as Queen Draga, was a former lady-in-waiting to Natalija Obrenović, the Queen of Serbia and the mother of Aleksandar Obrenović, future King of Serbia. Draga Mašin was a widow of Svetozar Mašin, a civil engineer. Draga married King Alexander in 1901. When King Alexander announced he was to wed her, public opinion turned against him. - Charlotte von Stein
Charlotta Ernestina Bernadina von Stein was born as “von Schardt” in Eisenach on December 25, 1742. Her parents were Hofmarschall Johann Wilhelm Christian von Schardt and Concordia Elisabeth von Schardt. While her father was a wasteful eccentric, her mother who had had Scottish ancestors was said to be very quiet and dutiful. Her parents moved to Weimar when Charlotte was yet a little child and she was prepared for working as a lady-in-waiting. - Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan
Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, born Henriette Genet (October 2 1752, Paris - March 16 1822, Mantes) was a French educator and lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Antoinette before and during the French Revolution. Her father, whose name was Genest, was first clerk in the foreign office, and, although without fortune, placed her in the most cultivated society. At the age of fifteen she could speak English and Italian, … - Margaret Rhodes
Margaret, The Hon. Mrs Rhodes, LVO, (b. 9 June 1925), is a first cousin and close friend of Queen Elizabeth II. She was born The Hon. Margaret Buller-Fullerton-Elphinstone, the youngest daughter of the 16th Lord Elphinstone and his wife, Mary (nee Bowes-Lyon). Margaret was a bridesmaid to her cousin Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. She was herself married to Denys Gravenor Rhodes (d. 1981) on 31 July 1950. - Sarah Wilson
Sarah Wilson (1754? - ?) was an English impostor who took a role of nonexistent sister of Queen Charlotte. How much of the tale is true is unclear. Sarah Wilson was born in Staffordshire and at the age of 16 moved to London. According to the usual tale, within a week she became a maidservant to Caroline Vernon, lady-in-waiting for the queen Charlotte, and was acquainted with the relations and rumors of the court. - Lady Elizabeth Cavendish
Lady Elizabeth Georgina Alice Cavendish CVO (b. 24 April 1926) was a childhood friend of Queen Elizabeth II and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret from the late-1940s until the latter's death in 2002. Lady Elizabeth was the daughter of Edward Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington (later 10th Duke of Devonshire) and his wife, Mary "née" Gascoyne-Cecil. She was born three (3) days after Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was born in 1926. - Catherine Douglas
Catherine Douglas, later Catherine ("or Kate") Barlass, was a historical figure involved in the assassination of King James I of Scotland on February 20, 1437. Legend has it that during the King's stay at a Dominican chapterhouse in Perth, a group of men led by Sir Robert Graham came to the door searching for the King in order to kill him. The King's chamberlain, Robert Stuart, aware of the plot against his life, … - Ebba Brahe
Countess Ebba Brahe (March 16, 1596- January 5, 1674) was a lady-in-waiting in the Swedish court and the mistress of the future king Gustavus Adolphus. - Jane Boleyn Viscountess Rochford
Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (~1505-February 13 1542) was an English noblewoman who lived in the reign of Henry VIII. She was a sister-in-law of Henry's second wife Anne Boleyn and lady-in-waiting to his fifth wife Catherine Howard, with whom she was executed. - Mathieu de Montmorency
Mathieu Jean Felicité de Montmorency, duc de Montmorency-Laval, was a prominent French statesman during the French Revolution and Bourbon Restoration. Born in Paris, Mathieu de Montomorency was the son of Mathieu Paul Louis de Montmorency, vicomte de Laval (1748-1809), a scion of one of the oldest noble families in France, and his wife, Catherine Jeanne Tavernier de Boullongne (d. 1838), the daughter of an aristocratic French planter in Guadeloupe. - Lady Janet Stewart
Lady Janet Stewart (c.1505 - c.1563) was an illegitimate daughter of King James IV of Scotland. Her mother was probably Agnes Stewart, herself an illegitimate daughter of James Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, but may have been Isobel Stewart, the earl's legitimate daughter. Lady Janet married Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming, who was killed at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547. She became a governess to the infant Queen Mary I of Scotland, and her own daughter, Mary Fleming, … - Lady Alice Egerton
Lady Alice Egerton CVO (7 August 1923-7 October 1977) was a British courtier. Lady Alice was the youngest child of the 4th Earl of Ellesmere and his wife, Violet. In 1949, she replaced her sister, Lady Margaret Colville, as a Lady-in-Waiting to the then Princess Elizabeth and became a Woman of the Bedchamber in 1953. Lady Alice never married and held a continuous time of service for the next twenty-four years. - Hedvig Taube
Countess Hedvig Ulrika Taube (1714-1744) was an Estonian-Finnish-Swedish noblewoman, official mistress to King Frederick I of Sweden and mother of Fredrik Vilhelm von Hessenstein and three other children. Hedvig Taube was the daughter of a noble family who suffered from severe gambling debts when the king noticed the beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter of the family in 1730. King Frederick I, nearing sixty, was at this point more and more infamous for his sexual excesses. - Lady Mary Mumford
Lady Mary Katharine Mumford, DCVO, (b. 14 August 1940) has been a Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Alexandra since 1964. Lady Mary is the second daughter of the 16th Duke of Norfolk and his wife, Lavinia. In 1986, she married Gp. Capt. Anthony Mumford. Her elder sister, Anne, inherited their father's title of Lord Herries of Terregles on his death in 1975 and as the former has no children, Lady Mary will inherit the title unless she should predecease her older sister. - Alastair Aird
Captain Sir Alastair Sturgis Aird, GCVO (born 14 January 1931) is a British royal courtier. Aird is the second son of Malcolm Aird (himself a grandson of Sir John Aird, 1st Baronet) and his wife Joan "née" Sturgis. He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and joined The Queen's Royal Lancers as a Captain in 1951. - Duchesse D'Aiguillon
Marie Madeleine de Vignerot du Pont de Courlay, Duchesse d'Aiguillon was the daughter of Cardinal Richelieu's sister, Françoise du Plessis and her husband René Vignerot. In 1620 she married a nephew of the constable de Luynes, Antoine de Beauvoir du Roure, sieur de Combalet, who died in 1622. In 1625, through her uncle's influence, she was made a lady-in-waiting ("dame d'atour") to the queen-mother Marie de' Medici, and in 1638 was created duchess of Aiguillon. - Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov
Count Alexander Matveyevich Dmitriev-Mamonov (Russian: Александр Матвеевич Дмитриев-Мамонов, 30 September 1758 — 11 October 1803, buried in Donskoy Monastery) was a lover of Catherine II of Russia from 1786 to 1789. A scion of the Rurikid family descending from the princes of Smolensk, Mamonov was a protégé of Prince Potemkin, whose aide-de-camp he was appointed in 1784. - Lady Rachel Pepys
Lady (Mary) Rachel Pepys, née Fitzalan-Howard, DCVO was a Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent from 1943 - 1968. Lady Rachel was the eldest child of the 15th Duke of Norfolk and his wife, Gwendolen. On 31 July 1939, she married Lt. Col. Colin Davidson and they had two children: Duncan Henry Davidson (b. 1941) and Harriet Mary (b. 1942), who married Michael Sefi, the current Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection. - Leonora Anson Countess of Lichfield
Leonora Anson, Countess of Lichfield LVO (born 1 February 1949) was born Lady Leonora Mary Grosvenor, a daughter of the 5th Duke of Westminster. On 8 March 1975, she married the 5th Earl of Lichfield and became Countess of Lichfield. The couple were divorced in 1986 and as she has not re-married, the Countess retains her title. Since 1979, the countess has been an extra lady-in-waiting to The Princess Royal. - Lady Constance Gaskell
Lady Constance Harriet Stuart Gaskell "née" Knox DCVO (21 April 1885-29 April 1964) was a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary from 1937–53 and Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent from 1953–60. Lady Constance was the second daughter of the 5th Earl of Ranfurly, who was later Governor of New Zealand from 1897-1904. On 7 November 1905, she married Maj. Evelyn Gaskell, a son of Rt. Hon. Charles Gaskell. Lady Constance died in 1964. - Colin Tennant 3rd Baron Glenconner
Colin Christopher Paget Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner (b. 1926) is the current holder of the Scots title Baron Glenconner, which he inherited from his father in 1983. The Barony of Glenconner is of The Glen in the County of Peebles, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1911 for Sir Edward Priaulx Tennant, 2nd Baronet, who had earlier represented Salisbury in the House of Commons as a Liberal and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Peeblesshire. - Leonor Telles de Menezes
Leonor (Elionor) Telles (Teles) de Menezes, called "A aleivosa" ("The Treacherous"), was queen consort of Portugal during the 14th century. Born in Trás-os-Montes, she served as queen consort from 1372 to 1383 and as regent from 1383 to 1384. Married at a young age to a courtier named João Lourenço da Cunha, with whom she had a son, Álvaro da Cunha, she would be seduced by Ferdinand I of Portugal when he was a prince. - Aelia Eudocia
Eudocia Augusta (c. 401-460), wife of Theodosius II, East Roman emperor, was born in Athens. She was the daughter of the sophist Leontius, from whom she received a thorough training in literature and rhetoric. The traditional story, told by John Malalas and others, is that she had been deprived of her small patrimony by the rapacity of her brothers, and sought redress at court in Constantinople. Her accomplishments attracted the attention of Theodosius' sister Pulcheria, … - Marie Josephine Louise Duchesse de Gontaut
Marie Josephine Louise, duchesse de Gontaut was born in Paris on the 3rd of August 1773, daughter of Augustin François, comte de Montaut-Navailles, who had been governor of Louis XVI and his two brothers when children. The count of Provence (afterwards Louis XVIII) and his wife stood sponsors to Josephine de Montaut, and she shared the lessons given by Madame de Genlis to the Orléans family, … - George Gordon Lord Haddo
George Gordon, Lord Haddo (28 January 1764-2 October 1791) was a Scottish Freemason and the eldest son of the George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen. On 18 June 1782, Haddo married Charlotte Baird, a sister of Sir David Baird, Bt. and they had seven children: *Hon. George Hamilton-Gordon (1784-1869), later 4th Earl of Aberdeen. *Hon. George Hamilton (1784-1858), politician and Vice-Admiral. *Hon. Alexander (1786-1815), soldier, killed at Waterloo. - Alexander of Bulgaria Alexander Prince of Bulgaria
Alexander Joseph of Battenberg (April 5, 1857 - November 17, 1893), the first prince (kniaz) of modern Bulgaria, reigned from April 29, 1879 to September 7, 1886). Alexander was the second son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine by the latter's morganatic marriage with Countess Julia von Hauke. - Alan Napier
Alan Napier (born Alan Napier-Clavering, January 7, 1903 in Birmingham, England, died August 8, 1988 in Santa Monica, California) was an English character actor. He is best known for playing Alfred in the 1960s live-action "Batman" television series. Napier was a cousin of Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister from 1937 to 1940 and the great-great grandson of author Charles Dickens. - Anastasia Hendrikova
Countess Anastasia Vasilyevna Hendrikova, (1887 - September 4, 1918), was a lady in waiting at the court of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. She was arrested by the Bolsheviks and shot to death outside Perm in the fall of 1918. Like the Romanovs and their servants who were assassinated on July 17, 1918, Hendrikova and Catherine Adolphovna Schneider, the elderly court tutor who was killed with her, … - Marie Casimire Louise De La Grange D'Arquien
Marie Casimire Louise de la Grange d'Arquien, in Polish: Maria Kazimiera, known also by the diminutive form "Marysieńka" (June 28 1641, Nevers – January 1 1716, Blois) was the Queen of Poland, consort to King Jan III Sobieski, from 1674 to 1696. She came to Poland at the age of 5 years as a lady in waiting to Ludwika Maria Gonzaga, the Queen of Poland from 1645 to 1672, … - Yang Gao
Yang Gao (楊杲) (607-618), nickname Jizi (季子), was an imperial prince of the Chinese dynasty Sui Dynasty. He was the youngest son of Emperor Yang. Yang Gao was born in 607, after Emperor Yang had already become emperor. His mother was Consort Xiao, of whom little is known, and she might have been a sister or a relative of Emperor Yang's wife Empress Xiao. In 613, he was created the Prince of Zhao. - Mary Seton
Mary Seton (Before 1549- d.1615) was the daughter of George Seton, 6th Lord Seton, and Marie Pieris, Lady in waiting to Marie de Guise, consort of King James V of Scotland. As a child, Mary became a Lady in waiting to the future Mary Queen of Scots, along with three other girls of similar age and of a similar standing in Scots society. They were known as the "Four Marys"- Mary Seton, Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston.
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